Total student loan debt outstandingTrained Catholic exorcists in the US
American student debt and American exorcists, both expanding. There is no Office of Student Spiritual Affairs, but if there were, it would be busy. Both numbers climb past totals that would have seemed impossible a generation ago.
US student loan debt outstanding grew from under 500 billion dollars in 2005 to over 1.7 trillion by 2021 as enrolment expanded, tuition outpaced inflation, and federal lending policies turned higher education into a primarily debt-financed transaction. The number of trained Catholic exorcists in the US grew from a handful to over a hundred over a similar window, after the Vatican loosened authorisation rules in 2014. Both lines are stories of capacity catching up with demand: more borrowers wanted access to credit, more dioceses wanted access to a rite. The supply side moved.
When demand becomes uncomfortable, supply quietly expands. Most decades discover this somewhere.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Total student loan debt outstanding” vs “Trained Catholic exorcists in the US” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
